Device Review: Realme 8 Pro

Realme offers 108MP at £279 but regresses in other areas 4/5

Realme’s rapid slate of releases continues with its latest flagship Realme 8 Pro. The Chinese vendor’s latest smartphone comes just months after the 7 Pro and features a few upgrades with the upgraded 108MP camera being the primary improvement.

This enhancement has, however, come at the expense of other features. The fast-charging and the selfie camera have both been downgraded slightly from the previous device to accommodate the new 108MP camera.

It is worth noting that this smartphone isn’t 5G-compatible and given Realme’s recent history, a separate 5G variant of the device could be introduced in the near future.

With that said, the Realme 8 Pro delivers more of what we’ve come to expect from the company. Realme delivers yet another sub £300 smartphone packed with plenty of impressive features that punches well above its weight.

Design

On first impressions, the device feels pretty light compared to other smartphones and weighs in at just 176g.

The body of the smartphone is covered in plastic and the screen to body ratio is 90.8 per cent.

The back of the device has the words ‘Dare to Leap’ on it which is an interesting choice and not something we’ve seen from smartphone vendors in recent times. I did, however, ask to see some innovation from Realme and this certainly qualifies so props to them for altering the design slightly.

The smartphone also comes with a 3.5mm headphone jack and a USB-C port.

Hardware specs

OS: Android 11
Processor: Qualcomm Snapdragon 720G
Screen: 6.4 inches
Resolution: 1080 x 2400 pixels
RAM: 6GB or 8GB
Internal storage: 128GB
Rear camera: 108MP, 8MP, 2MP, 2MP
Front camera: 16MP
Video: 4K@30fps, 1080p @ 30/60/120fps
Battery: 4500mAh 50W fast-charging
Connectivity: WiFi, Bluetooth 5.0
Dimensions: 160.6 x 73.9 x 8.1 mm
Weight: 176g

Camera

Without the 108MP camera, it would have been tough for Realme to market the 8 Pro as a genuine upgrade on the 7 Pro. However, Realme bringing a 108MP camera to the mid-range is a truly ridiculous feat.

And the Realme 8 Pro packs a powerhouse of a camera in its latest flagship, delivering on most fronts.

The Realme 8 Pro uses the Samsung ISOCELL HM2 sensor for its main-camera and daylight shots with the primary snapper were superb. Users are able to shoot at the 108MP resolution which offers fine detail on images and takes fantastic close-up images.

Colours were bright and true and the detail on the pictures I took were excellent. Below are some examples:

Low-light images were good but details on the images weren’t as good as when using the Night Mode feature which takes an additional five seconds to capture an image.

Performance

As usual with Realme devices, the battery life and fast charging is supremely impressive. The smartphone’s 50W fast charger charges it to 50 per cent in just 17 minutes and 100 per cent in 47 minutes, placing it amongst the fastest charging smartphones on the market today.

The fact that Realme can achieve this feat consistently with mid-range and budget phones yet the high-end vendors cannot compete in this area speaks volumes about Realme’s potential in the coming years.

Yet it seems as though the inclusion of the 108MP camera meant Realme had to make a few sacrifices on this device in terms of specs. The Realme 7 Pro featured a 65W wired charger which is slightly faster than the 50W one included with this device and the 32MP front camera has also been downgraded to 16MP.

Whether these regressions are justified is up to the user but as someone who doesn’t use the camera as often (particularly in recent lockdown), I would have liked to see genuine upgrades in other areas.

Like the Realme 7 Pro, the smartphone is powered by the Snapdragon 720G chipset but comes with 8GB of RAM as opposed to 6GB.

The Realme 8 Pro comes with Android 11 and runs RealmeUI 2.0 and the smartphone worked capably throughout my time with it. I had no major issues with the phone in terms of lags or glitches and while it isn’t as fast as the OnePlus 9 Pro, for example, the Realme 8 Pro works as well as you could hope for.

At a glance

· Speed – 4.5/5

· Camera – 4.5/5

· Battery – 4/5

· Design – 3/5

· Value – 4/5

· Price – £279

The Realme 8 Pro is available from the Realme website for £279.